Black Dog Magazine X Form 22LR AR Mag review

[John A.]

As many of you know, I recently had a Black Dog 22LR AR conversion magazine fail me in the feedlip. Needless to say, BDM took care of me and sent me one of their new X-Form magazines, so I am going to do a side by side comparison review of their older generation models. I thought the one they were going to send was going to have steel feedlips, but wasn't the case. But I plan to order one when I see them available on their site.

A few things that caught my eye right off.

First, the Xform magazine seems lighter than the old one.

And as you can see, the new X-form magazine on the left has a flat/matte black appearance and looks more like an AR magazine than the old one on the right.

The old 27 round follower (on the right) has been replaced by a taller 26 round follower that will hold the bolt open on the last shot, which will help prolong the life of the firing pin by preventing the hammer to strike the bolt while on an empty chamber.

I was curious how BDM planned on incorporating replacable feed lips. I half expected a simple square notch in the top of the magazine, but they got a lot more creative than that and has a couple of different places that are made to retain the feedlip, and in the correct position.

I haven't had the chance to run this magazine through all the paces that I have the older generation model, but I have no doubts that this mag is going to do just fine.

 

[Sn3aKyGuY]

Good review John. I'll defiantly pick a few of these up when I get my AR22 conversion.

 

[cbshooter]

I bought several mags from them this week for my Sig 522 and they must be the older version. I guess I will have to run them to see if I have any problems. Thanks John for the heads up.

 

[John A.]

The new magazines are marked X-FORM on them.

I do like the improvements in both the internal design with the ribbing to prevent the follower from tilting for more positive feeding, but the I also like the overall design as well.

And I will be getting one of the steel inserts when they become available. That should last darn near forever.

As for the service life of the old magazines, I think it has been rather exceptional.

The one I had that the feedlip broke, was manufactured in 8-07 according to the internal stamp in the magazine itself.

It has fired thousands of rounds, both with and without a suppressor (which causes more backpressure and grit and fouling). And at virtually every fire rate imaginable.

Although I didn't foresee my breaking the way it did, all I could recommend if yours did would be to contact BDM if you did have trouble with your magazine.

From what I gathered in the corrospondence from BDM, the old design like I have is in the process of being phased out and with the new XFORM production taking their place by Jan 2012.

So all I could recommend is to just shoot it until it dies. And that took years in my case.

 

[cbshooter]

Thanks John very useful info that I will remember if I have a problem.